First Impressions
by Sheryl Nantus
Summary: Just a pair of drunks talking... well, what did you want?


All Characters copyright of TenThirteen Productions and Chris Carter. No infringement intended on any part... go ahead, take me to court...I'm using the insanity defence... heh, heh, heh...The character of Jackie St. George belongs to me though... 

Comments, complaints and just plain talk to sheryl_martin@tvo.org 

Summary: Just a pair of drunks talking... well, what did you want?A slight reference to the Third Season, but nothing major... 

First Impressionsby Sheryl Martin 

Dana Scully was not drunk. Well, not yet. But the blurring of her vision when she tried to focus on the far wall was a good hint at what was happening to her. Smiling, she held out her glass for a refill. 

Chuckling to herself, Jackie St. George did the honours; balancing the wine bottle precariously in the air so that the clear liquid fell from a good half-foot down into the glass. A slight splash sent some over the edge and into her outstretched hand; which went to her mouth eagerly with a grin. 

"Waste not..." She chortled as she set the bottle down beside the other empty one. Leaning back on the couch, she sighed. "Man, been too long since we done this..." 

Dana nodded, taking a sip. "Been a long time for anything." She sighed. 

The Canadian let out a deep laugh. "And what would we be talking about, Dana Katherine Scully?" 

Holding the glass up to eye level, the redhead twirled it around by the stem. "I don't know... a date, a life... waking up in the same bed for more than three nights in a row. Working, I mean." 

"Ah... like the rest of the world, you mean. " St. George smiled. "Field work is guaranteed to kill your social life." She sighed as well. "Even when I do get some free time; it's got to match up with Marty's - and that's a gamble at best." 

"But when I was growing up; moving with the entire family from base to base whenever Dad got reassigned, I used to love to move." Dana frowned. "I couldn't wait to pack up my life in a few boxes at the drop of a hat and go." 

"And now you can't." Jackie said quietly. "'Cause there's too much luggage." 

"Too much luggage." She repeated in a low whisper, oblivious to Jackie's stare. Taking a deep swallow of the wine, the petite woman looked around her apartment. "Too much luggage." Her voice changed suddenly. "And how about you? Being tied down in one place for so long - from what I remember, you've never been in a site for longer than a few months, much less a year." 

Jackie laughed again. "Sometimes I panic... go out for a run on the rooftops; go hide in the shadows for a few hours to get that feeling out of my system." 

"Isn't that dangerous?" 

"Yes." She grinned wickedly. "And I love it." 

"Marty would kill you." 

"Well... I just don't tell him." Tilting her head, she let some of the dark hair obscure her face. "We both know about walking on the edge..." 

"Walking on the edge." Dana chuckled. "Mulder loves to do that. Too much, I think." 

"Oh, and you don't?" Jackie grinned. "Who keeps following him around to all these places and cases; picking up the pieces and helping him put them together?" 

"I'm his partner." 

"Uh huh." 

"Nothing more." 

"Uh huh." 

"Stop that." 

"Stop what?" 

"That infuriating grinning when you say that." 

Putting the near-empty glass to her mouth, the woman smiled. "So tell me, what did you think the first time you met the infamous Fox Mulder?" 

Dana's forehead creased for a second as she thought. Quickly her mind reran the first time she had entered that strange place in the basement; the twilight zone of the FBI. And he had turned to her and given her the first of many seductive but annoying smiles. 

"I thought he was a smug bastard." She reached for the bottle; refilling their glasses. "Smug enough to think he knew who I was by reading my thesis and my personnel file. That he had all the information to know who I was and what I was." 

"But didn't you think you knew him by his reputation?" Jackie smiled sweetly. "'Spooky' and all that?" 

"That's different." She protested. "I didn't hold it against him. I evaluated his professional work; his time in VCU and the profiling he had done. The record of facts; not of his suppositions and theories. I took him at face value; not on the basis of his reputation." 

Jackie snickered. 

"Well, maybe I did think he was a bit odd." Dana demurred. "But that was a long time ago." She raised an eyebrow. "And when you met Mulder? What was that like?" 

"It was in the middle of a slide show presentation about abductees..." Her eyes went distant. "He was three seats from me, but he could have been a thousand miles away from the rest of mankind; the way he was studying the slides." 

"He was so immersed on the pictures; so focused on the words coming from the speaker that it was almost like he was projecting himself into the images. There were a few women trying to get his attention, practically throwing themselves on him - but all he could see and hear was the stories and slides." She paused. "It was scary to watch." 

"Then after the show I made a point of 'bumping' into him - just too dammed curious for my own good. Introduced myself, of course." 

"And left out the part about being a special agent?" Dana smiled. 

"Hey, ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies." Jackie smirked. "Besides, after he said he was with the FBI, I didn't want to take any chances." Her eyes went to the floor. "I couldn't trust him. I didn't have many people I could trust." 

"And now?" 

"Don't push it, Scully." St. George sighed. "He looked so lost; so haunted... but all he would say was that he was interested in UFOs. That's all." She chuckled into her glass. "And totally ignoring the two women that were ready to kill me for getting and keeping his attention." 

"Interested in him, were they?" 

"Totally. Soaked their seats watching him." The Canadian laughed as she refilled the glasses again. "And the worst thing is; I wasn't even checking him out in that way." 

"Uh huh." 

"No, really." 

"Uh huh." 

"Hey, I'm off the market. Besides..." Jackie looked slyly at Dana. "Next time I saw him he was definitely off limits." 

"Oh, right." The woman laughed. "The first time I saw you, you were tossing a knapsack at his head." 

"And I missed." 

"Not by much." She fell silent. "God, Jackie... I'm so tired." Getting to her feet, Dana walked around the couch into the dining room. "I'm so damn tired of it all - all the pain and the sorrow we cause to so many people..." A hand wiped a stray tear off her cheek. "The mothers we see who won't get their children back; the orphans we make by taking their parents away..." 

"But you've helped a lot of people." Jackie said softly. "And saved lives that would have been lost." 

"At what price? Melissa, Samantha... Mulder's been almost lost so many times... I might still die..." Images of the Allentown women swam in front of her eyes. "I might still die from what they did..." 

"Or you might not." St. George said firmly. "You might get married, have 2.5 kids and a minivan in the driveway." 

"Or be lying dead in some unmarked grave with the other women..." 

Angrily getting to her feet, Jackie strode over; waving her free hand in the air. "That isn't going to happen! I won't let it happen! Mulder won't let it happen! Skinner won't let it happen!" 

"Is that a promise?" Dana snapped back, face to face now with the enraged woman. "Can you promise me this? Can you?" She paused. "You can't. No one can." 

"So what do you want to do? Lay down and die?" St. George roared at the top of her lungs. "That's the answer, right? Curl up in a ball and just not do anything?" She curled her fingers into a fist. "Rage against the dying of the light, Dana... that's all there is to it. Rage until you can't do anything but put that energy into finishing the job; getting it done." 

"And where is there room for love in your world, Jackie? Where?" Dana asked quietly. "Where is the love?" 

Jackie smiled, tears running down her face. "It's all the same thing, Dana Katherine Scully... They're all the same..." She walked into the bathroom; flipping the tap on. Her voice echoed off the tiles. "Dammit, you make me think too much..." 

Leaning against the table, Dana listened to the water running for a few minutes. Suddenly a soaking washcloth flew out of the room; smacking her directly in the face. 

"I'll be dammed if I'm going to sit here and be a crying drunk. Get your coat and let's go out for a walk." 

*********** 

Mulder smiled as the car door slammed shut. "Going to surprise her, I bet." 

"Well, I know she's over at Dana's - she left that much information on her machine in case I called." Marty grinned as they headed out of the airport. "Thanks for the lift - though I know it doesn't take much to get you to go over there." 

"Don't push it." Fox looked upwards at the sky. "Looks like rain... hopefully they're thoroughly and soundly drunk and not getting into any trouble." 

"Those two?" 

"Hey, I'm speeding already." Mulder sighed. 

********* 

The small park near Scully's apartment building was empty; long ago abandoned by the local kids in favour of dinner and the latest television shows. Stumbling down the path, the two women found themselves in front of the tangled pieces of metal welded together for monkey bars; the canvas straps and chains hanging down for swings; the teeter totters bouncing up and down in the stiff wind that had begun to blow. 

Jackie grinned. "Betcha can't beat me to the top of the slide." 

"Betcha I can." 

******** 

Mulder frowned as he rapped harder on the front door; reaching for his keys instinctively. Once inside, they scanned the three empty bottles and the discarded glasses. 

"Think they went for a walk?" 

"Think we better go find them before this storm hits." 

********* 

The trench coat swung precariously from the teetertotter alongside the loose combat jacket as the two women scrambled up and down the metal bars. 

"Is the best the basement crew of the FBI can do?" 

"Says you..." 

******** 

Fox led the way down the path, glancing up at the dark clouds. "I'm sure they'll go home eventually..." Suddenly he stopped as the first large drops hit his face. "Wonderful." 

Turning the corner quickly as the rain started, he stopped and smiled; raising a hand to gesture at Marty as he came up beside him. 

Swinging madly from the top of the monkey bars, Jackie laughed at Dana, who had managed to tangle one of her shoes on the welded joint. Flipping the offending shoe off, the redhead scrambled towards the top eagerly as the storm clouds opened on them. 

St. George grinned as she swung out again from the metal bars, letting go to fly off and land on her back in the middle of the sandy park. Grimacing, she lay there in the soaked mud for a long second. 

"So... come here often?" A face came into view. 

"Smartass. If you were a real gentleman, you'd carry me back home so I can die in peace." She winced as she sat up with Marty's help. "I'm not as young as I used to be..." 

Dana scampered down from the now-slippery bars to land nearby. "You alright?" 

"Just my pride hurt. And my back. And my head." Jackie groaned. "I'm outta here." She gestured at Mulder. "You - make sure she dries off before she passes out." 

"Yes, 'mam" 

"Shut up, Mulder." St. George got to her feet groggily. "Just shut up..." Clinging to her fiance, she smiled at Scully. "Rage, Dana... Rage..." Stumbling off towards the street, she winked at Mulder. "'Night." 

Mulder stared after the pair before returning his attention to the drenched woman in front of him. "I don't really want to know, but are you okay?" 

She laughed. "Just fine, Mulder... just fine..." 

"Okay." He frowned. "Then can I get a cup of coffee and some towels before I drown?" 

With a smile Dana hooked her arm around his, leading him down the soggy path towards her apartment. "No problem..." Her voice trailed off in the distant thunder. "Mulder, what were you thinking the first time you saw me?" 

*********** 

"The priest, he said my sole salvationwas in the battles of the angelsand underneath the waves of passionI keep the faith in my own fashion..."Sting -- "When We Dance" 


End file.
